The structure of detachment
Subtitle: the aesthetic vision of Kuki Shuzo
By: Hiroshi Nara ; with essays by J. Thomas Rimer and Jon Mark Mikkelsen.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Honolulu
Language: eng
Number of pages: 185
Subjects: Kuki, Shūzō, -- 1888-1941
Work titles: Iki no kōzō.
Description: "The Structure of Detachment offers a finely crafted, reliable, and thoroughly annotated translation of this seminal work of one of modern Japan's most prominent philosophers. Because of its impact on the modern Japanese understanding of traditional culture and character, The Structure of Iki has inspired great interest and debate among scholars examining Kuki's role in the formation of a national aesthetics in the years prior to World War II. The three critical essays that accompany the translation look at various aspects of Kuki, his work, and the historical context that influenced his thinking. Hiroshi Nara first traces Kuki's interest in a philosophy of life through his exposure to Husserl, Heidegger, and Bergson. In the second essay, J. Thomas Rimer compels readers to reexamine The Structure of Iki as a work in the celebrated tradition of zuihitsu (stream-of-consciousness writings) and takes into account French literary influences on Kuki. The philosopher's controversial link with Heidegger is explored by Jon Mark Mikkelsen in the final essay, which concludes that, although Heidegger's view of art is consistent, both historically and conceptually, with his political involvement with fascism, the same cannot be said of Kuki." "The Structure of Detachment: The Aesthetic Vision of Kuki Shuzo at last makes broadly available to English readers one of Japan's major philosophical texts of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Part I: Translation; title: The structure of Iki; title: Part II : Essays; title: Capturing shudders and palpitations : Kukis quest for a philosophy of life / Hiroshi Nara; title: Literary stances : the structure of Iki / J. Thomas Rimer; title: Reading Kuki Shuzo's The Structure of Iki in the shadow of L'affaire Heidegger / J. Mark Mikkelsen.